“We have a vision to establish SRI/Synergy as the leading provider of central sterilization services and to build upon the success that SRI has enjoyed as a leader in environmentally sound service provision to the health care community,” Steeves said in the memo to SRI employees. “The U.S. market seems ready for both services, and as a combined team we can realize this vision.”

Synergy currently is the world’s second largest provider of outsourced sterilization services for medical device manufacturers and one of the top two global providers of central sterilization services for hospitals. The combined business would be No. 1 globally for central sterilization services, Steeves said.

Synergy has bought four businesses in the past year, according to The Financial Times, including the purchase of MSI Surgical Solutions for $6.5 million in March.

The U.S. is the world’s biggest health care market, but the market in outsourced hospital sterilization is in its infancy, Steeves told the Times.

“The post-operative rate of infection in the U.S. is higher than in the U.K.,” he said.